Gourmet Birthday Party, Last minute Applique Tops & Crocodile Cake!

Well the past 2 days have been spent preparing and enjoying my two youngest boys (4 & 2 years)combined birthday party. It has been all consuming and very little sewing has been done. Aside, that is for some very last minute appliqued singlets that I did for the boys. However, will get to that in a minny. So the boys have had the chesty cough they picked up from swimming lessons last week and then hubby and I came down with it over the weekend. Of course Man flu being as bad as it can be, I had to do all of the party prep myself and often with whingeing, annoying, naughty little boys hanging around, whilst feeling rather sub par myself. Let me tell you, that sushi is not a good thing to make with an inquisitive 2 yr old around who has a tendency to stool hop onto the breakfast bar and make lightening snap grabs at whatever he can reach. Fortunately I was able to employ the assistance of my 15 yr old at times to come to the rescue whilst hubby was laid up on the couch with THE worst cold in the world. Anyways, I was up until midnight last night, after a cooking fiesta throughout the day, making sausage rolls and the rice for the sushi and baking teryaki chicken drumsticks. I have a tendency to try and make a certain dish bigger and better. I did this with the sausage rolls. I wanted them to EXPLODE with flavour. They did, kind of:P I put fresh garlic in them as well as fresh parmesen cheese. I was a little too impatient to wait for the thermomix to blitz the chunks of cheese so I just put the mix into the puff pastry anyway. I think the extra 'wetness' from the cheese in the mix made it hard for the pastry to crisp up in some spots, so some of the sausage mix did kind of explode out in some spots. Either way they tasted nice but I must remember to follow recipes! So once the kids were in bed last night, I got onto making the cake. I had planned to just do the icing and finish it off in the morning. However, once I had done the basic icing layer to 'crumb' the cake, it was like one of my creations...I just had to see it through to the end so I could see what it looked like. Here is what my 4 yr old chose out of the party book for me to make. I was quietly pleased as he had mentioned a buzz lightyear cake at one stage :P

Once the kids were in bed for their pre-party afternoon sleep today, I packed two eskies, 5 carry bags with basic necessities, picnic rug, etc etc. I had 30 minutes until the kids had to be woken and put in the car when I remembered that I was going to make them birthday tops to wear. I had forgotten! Hubby still on the couch, I quickly grabbed the Owl singlet for the 2 yr old and cut out a felt number 2. I did the same with another singlet for Mr 4 and cut out a pic of Buzz and a felt number 4. I thought I would just use some iron on 'heat and bond' to adhere the numbers to the singlets. Perfect I thought as I wanted them to be removable so that they could wear the tops later on (I have a scottish heritage and can be a bit frugal at times). Anyway, all good in theory until after ironing on the number 2 I thought I'd give it a little stretch to see how it would sit over a little chest underneath. It peeled off on one side...der! Mildly panicky but determined, I rearranged buzz on the other singlet and ironed on number 4 and went off to the sewing machine. I heard the kids wake up but ignored them temporarily. Quick, long-stitch on the numbers so that they could be picked and removed later, I completed them. Dressed the kids, packed the car and made it to the party with 10 minutes to spare before the guests arrived. Here are the boys in their tops...

So what do I need to do next year to be more organized? 1. Don't get sick 2. Write more lists to remember stuff 3. Make boys birthday tops 1 week before 4. Have adequate medication on hand in case hubby gets man flu again x Tanya